Savageland

I didn't expect nearly as much as I got, particularly with such a low budget, but it delivered. The film actually doesn't spend much time with the man charged in the murder of an entire town, but instead we get to see what he saw that night using a set of blurry, yet unsettling photos depicting the carnage that went on as he made his way through town. There is no shortage of plot holes that can't be so easily filled in with the racism theme the movie is going for, but the creep factor is dialed to 11. You catch on to what is happening fairly early into the movie, but the most interesting thing is the way it makes an old trope feel new. You'll have a much better experience with it if you avoid any and all spoilers.

Here's the theory, the scariest yet beautiful place in this whole universe is our imagination., and this movie will help us to prove this theory. Found footage/documentary, since blair witch project and paranormal activity was dominated horror genre in recent year, but it was hard to mention a good one , either it was too cliche, repetitive, meaningless or as simply as didn't scary at all. With all my disappointed, then, i decided to give it a go with this movie. i was expecting a few teenager, using their camera, drone, google glass, will make a stupid trip into a haunted land, and they got eaten or killed one by one by a ghost, which is recorded on camera. But, this movie didn't deliver this. it was just series of interview about what happened in some little town which lost all of its resident in one night. there's no ghost. monsters, serial killer caught on cams, really... if there's no explanation, that it was a movie, maybe some of us would believe it was a real events. without no well-known actor, i felt that i watched some real interview. but, the best part was not about the concept. but how this movie played our imagination, what really happened in those town is reveals by the series of chronological interview, and that made me imagine the tragedy that killed 52 persons. there's no explanation about what's really happened, but it was just happens. i didn't think i ever watched similar movie. it has no jump scare moment, cheap CGI, disturbing score, or even a protagonist, but i didn't need it to enjoy a movie as a whole package. kudos!!

This film started out well and I'll have to say it looks close to a usual documentary. However the story lags and leaves too many unanswered questions to be as good as it could have been. An average film.

Sometimes the trailers lie...not this time. For some reason, this movie took some digging to find, a part from its trailers. As far as this sub-genre goes, this movie will be hard to top. I usually fast forward or pause a film, not this time. Not quite a mystery. More like a puzzle that someone keeps handing you pieces of, and even after you can see the basic shape, the pieces keep coming faster.

By my usual 3 categories; story, acting, effects. 1, The story was interest all round. From how it was told; using video interviews, photos, and lastly a clip of found video, and point of view. Pacing was near perfect as we are carried a long. Skillfully put together. 2, the acting was really well done, very believable, no over acting. 3, effects. How do I explain this without spoilers? There is a definite art to what is clearly shown and what is indistinct, hinted at, in a horror movie. This balance was masterfully achieved in this movie. There are no big budget effects. In truth only one small snippet of live action at the end. Mostly its done with B&W photographs taken by the main character. 30 some photos that will leave you very uncomfortable. This film has a great sense of realism. The movie ends, but the story goes on.

I guess that's too many genres for one movie, but I think they're all accurate. The story revolves around an apparent spree-killing in a tiny, destitute Arizona border town near Nogales, Mx. The main suspect is also an amatuer photog and though not initially found, when a roll of film that he had taken during the entire night of the killings is developed, the story takes on a much darker tone. I have a soft spot in my heart for low budget horror films, but this one really is pretty high quality. Only one or two of the actors couldn't pull off the doc/reality part (the sherriff being the most annoying of them). There is a bit of a twist at the end, when one of the characters' book is published, and a "cover-up" is potentially revealed, but for the most part this fizzles at the end unfortunately. Over all, it's really well done for the resources they had, and the photo vs video aspect of the found "footage" was unique and really something I hadn't seen before. If you like "The Bay" but weren't really into the heavy-handedness and lack of "fright" you may just like this a lot.